What’s News in Markets: Dimon’s Day, Target Missed, Ticket Lawsuit
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Hey, listeners, it's Saturday, May 25th. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. The stock market lost some enthusiasm this week, testing whether NVIDIA's blockbuster earnings could offset investors' inflation blues. Thursday was the day when those worries about inflation and interest rates were kicked up by a business report showing more economic activity in May. And, as we've been seeing this year, anything that can affect the chances of the Fed cutting rates is going to weigh on investor sentiment. And that it did. That same day, Nvidia's shares jumped 9% higher after the chipmaker posted record quarterly revenue and profit.
But alas, it wasn't enough to push the major indexes higher on Thursday. But it seemed like the market felt better on Friday, going into the long weekend, and all in all, the indexes ended the week mixed. Some comments from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon didn't get a warm welcome on the bank's investor day, but they did grab some attention. On Monday, Dimon told analysts that he would likely leave the top spot within five years, breaking away from his usual boilerplate response to questions about his tenure. For context, Dimon is 68 years old, so this is something that is certainly on shareholders' minds. Separately, Diamond also seemed to imply that JPMorgan's share price had gotten so high he didn't want to buy back any more stock.
But later in the day, a spokesperson for the bank stepped in to clarify. Diamond didn't mean the bank was stopping all repurchases. He was just referring to any additional repurchases beyond the current pace of buybacks. An important distinction to make. Still, JPMorgan shares fell more than 4% Monday and notched a weekly loss of 2%. Now let's dive into some earnings reports that we got this week. Other than Nvidia, which we've talked about a bunch here on What's News. So let's talk about Target. The retail giant missed the mark again in the latest quarter, announcing a fourth straight quarter of sales declines. To be sure, it wasn't the only retailer who saw sales decline. On Tuesday, both Lowe's and Macy's said that their sales slipped from a year prior.
And it makes sense. Many consumers are pulling back their spending, and high interest rates aren't making them want to reach for their credit card or take out a loan for a renovation. And Target certainly doesn't want to extend that slide, so it's doing what we've seen other big companies do to try and jumpstart sales. Slash price tags. Earlier in the week, Target said it would reduce prices on about 1,500 products, with thousands more cuts coming over the summer. And these are especially focused on food and other everyday necessities. But investors had more to parse through than just the new deals from Target. And the downbeat quarter, we report, earned the stock a downbeat daily move. Shares fell 8% Thursday and ended the week down more than 9%.
You may remember back in April, the day Taylor Swift released her latest record, in fact, I told you all about WSJ's reports that the Justice Department was preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, the owner of Ticketmaster and General Concert Promotion Behemoth. Well, guess what dropped this week?
How did this week's economic data and Nvidia earnings affect market sentiment?
Dedicated What's News listeners know that no, it wasn't another surprise Swift album. That would be insane. It was that DOJ lawsuit alleging that Live Nation used its power to choke off competition, retaliate against its rivals, and drive prices and fees higher for fans.
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Chapters
2 chaptersSpeakers
1 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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